Cloudland, Xero and Festy Hall: Brisbane's music scene from the archives – in pictures

Main image:
One of the Beatles’ performances at Brisbane’s Festival Hall.
Photograph: State Library of Queensland

Fri 7 Sep 2018 19.57 EDT
Last modified on Sat 8 Sep 2018 21.52 EDT

Cloudland Ballroom, Bowen Hills, Brisbane 1946. Before its reopening as an entertainment venue the following year, the building was used as a defence facility for the US military during the second world war.

Peter Milton Walsh of the Apartments, Cloudland, 13 October 1979. Walsh soon left Brisbane, complaining that the humidity played havoc with his hair. Walsh is a bona fide star in France; one critic described the band’s lack of local recognition as ‘the greatest crime of neglect in Australian music’.

The Ramones during their first Australian tour on 18 July 1980 at Festival Hall. A seminal gig for many Brisbane punks, including Murray Shepherd of the Screaming Tribesmen and his big brother Brad, later of the Hoodoo Gurus.